Liberal.org.au publishes calls to violence
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UPDATE BELOW: The Liberals attempt to silently edit out the evidence; unfortunately for them, we’ve got other screenshots.
And here we see the dangers of a political party publishing comments as if it were a media organisation. From the Liberal Party’s liberal.org.au website, on a post about the Greens:
That’s actually on there twice, and has been there for a month. There are many other comments by Liberal supporters following it, and none apparently thought it was going too far.
Here’s another:
And those aren’t the only ones that skate over, or at least perilously close to, the line.
Perhaps the Liberals might want to consider just what their rhetoric is inspiring, and the wisdom of publishing on their official website actual calls to violence.
(Via Max in the comments.)
UPDATE: After we posted this, the Liberals went through and deleted both of the above comments. They also silently deleted the following, hoping no-one noticed it had also been published for a month – but unfortunately for them, I saved the web page this morning and can produce a screengrab:
As I noted above, it’s disturbing how many comments were left after Barry’s whose authors apparently had no problem with what he’d written. To them it apparently was not out of the ordinary to call for the murder of their political opponents.
Interestingly, as soon as people who’d read this post wandered across – well, suddenly there were calls for moderators. Funny that.
Hmmm, a quick call to the Federal Police seems to be in order…
It’s been there for a month?! Phew, Jeremy, this will be a big story, I predict, that’s if the mainstream media aren’t too scared to run it…
Looks like that “report abuse” button is working well!
For a party that’s all about “sending a message to people smugglers,” what do you think they’d do if someone (God forbid) did actually assassinate an ALP member in a marginal seat? Would they condemn the act and refuse to take government in those circumstances? Or would they run against the ALP, and change the Federal government?
What message would that send?
well done with the screenshots guys: the site “moderator” has taken down the posts
As cuppa said this should be a very big MSM story especially in light of what has recently happened. Whats the bet that it never sees the light of day given the closeness of the MSM to the body involved.
Bigpond News, 02 March 2011:’
story continues
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Politics/2011/03/02/Colourful_language_to_be_expected_583820.html
From the Liberal leader himself, when asked about threats made against politicians.
It sounds awfully like the excuses rape perpetrators use, ie she was asking for it.
With a misogynist, thuggish brute for a leader, it’s little wonder Liberal members come out with the kind of rhetoric you’ve highlighted.
Of course they would condemn the act, but would they refuse to take government?
Snowballs chance in hell I’d say.
So jeremy, you read the Liberals website a lot?
In regards to confessions post I would counter that one thing a politician can’t do is to misinterpret threatening behaviour as robust discussion.
The two are distinctly different with the latter having no place for implied or direct threats toward violence.
Undoubtedly the thread discussed here should be referred to the police, will it be though?
I notice some of the critical comments were removed too..
You know, I just picked one of their “Radical Green Agenda” links to check on for shits and giggles. I went for the “Greens want to change the national flag”. Follow the link, and what do you find?
Bob Brown suggests a VOTE on changing the flag. Yeah…real radical agenda there. ‘Cos you know what happens when people VOTE; you might end up with, like, someone other than the ruling elite actually running the country.
If thats robust political discussion does that mean I can start making calls for people to go to town on various Liberal politicians with cricket bats. Or on barnaby in the hope som sense gets knocked into him?
Abbott is a dangerous {Snip – Dave}
Someone needs to put Daniel Bonds question @ 4 to the Liberals. Because that comment on a political party’s website is almost a call for terrorism.
Someone want to tweet that question into QandA tonight? (I don’t have a mobile phone.)
They’ve closed the thread to comments as well now. pity, I was writing something on there…
So when can we start using the word ‘treason’ to describe this?
So, I wonder what the sequence of events was on liberal.org.au.
As I see it, either the comments where posted about a month below – and no one until now reported them as abuse.
Or they were reported – but where ignored until now, until they saw the comments here (and on the other thread).
A People’s Revolt?
Placard at No Carbon Tax Rally, Canberra, 23 March 2011:
http://media.crikey.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/carbon-rally2.jpg
Euthanize ???
Jo Nova allowed similar comments to be published on her blog, calling for the PM to be assassinated. They were removed after complaints from others.
http://joannenova.com.au/2011/07/the-convoy-of-no-confidence-is-amassing-towards-canberra/
Voluntarily of course, I’m sure.
Those clowns at “Australian Patriots Defence Movement” are holding a “Ban The Burka” rally in Brisbane on Saturday. By definition they are bigots.
They are explicitly using the burka as an excuse for their core goal which they state as “we want to defeat Islam”. Not “we want everyone to show their face in public”.
Logic is not their strong suit either. They ask their supporters not to come along with balaclavas on. You know, bad look at your anti-face-covering rally if your supporters wear their traditional outfits – might send the wrong message. They also ask people not to bring “Support Liberal” banners (or “Green” to be fair – Must be a real hassle having all those Greens supporting your bigotted agenda??).
I’m pretty sure this is the type of “robust” discussion Abbott is describing, with a nod and a wink.
I don’t recommend it, but if you want more:
http://www.australianpatriotsdefencemovement.org/displaynewscontent.php?t=MTA=&tn=QVBETSAtQmFuIHRoZSBCdXJxYSBSQUxMWQ==
Re Confessions at #8
Tony Abbott’s & that of his paty’s commitment to “robust debate” seem to be at variance with their actions.
Anybody remember their hysterical hissy fit at being called climate change deniers & then linking it to the holocaust. A linkk I hadn’t made.
If you deny something then you are a denier.
Sincerely hope the ALP & Geeens have a far better moderation system.
Can understand the Liberals failurer. After all they are locked into the 19th century & don’t understand technology. Remember Abbott explaining , if that’s the word, his paty’s technology policy , or at least what tried to masquerade as policy
I loathe the Left/Right he said/she said shenanigans, but are there parallels of this behaviour on Teh Left? Does the Socialist Alliance have a website? Are they calling for assasinations? What about Green Left? The Rainbow Coalition?
Seems to me most ‘left’ idealogy is based on a non-agression axiom at the very least, some total pacifists. I’m interested to see if this assumption is correct.
Eponymous – This is not about The Socialist Alliance website this is about the Liberal party of Australia’s website. To test your assumption will have to trawl the Labor website.
Welcome to the Aussie Tea Party!
I’m not saying those other groups are equivalent. I am just interested in groups on the broad left encouraging violence.
I don’t even really think the Labor party is that left these days anyway :-p
Tony Abbott: “But the fact is the best way to have a civil discourse in this country at the moment would be for the Prime Minister to say ‘look, I made a mistake, I shouldn’t have said one thing before the election and done a different thing after the election, I’m not going to try to ram this toxic tax through a parliament with no mandate for it, I’m going to take it to the people at an election.’ ”
Yet also Tony Abbott: “Well, Laurie, when I made that statement, in the election campaign, I had not the slightest inkling that there would ever be any intention to change this. But obviously when circumstances change, governments do change their opinions, and that is actually the responsible course of action.”
Just another example of the descent to the bottom in discourse in this country.
It’s appalling that those comments would pass moderation on any mainstream website, let alone remain there for as long as they did.
There’s a real undercurrent of hatred in Australia at the moment, and it’s very, very disturbing.
This one was up there this morning but has been taken down now. I thought it the worst of them all:
http://twitpic.com/5z0u79
Sorry about my post #29.
I missed the first screen shot in the topic because of my small notebook screen.
I don’t think Labor are that far to the Left now either. But socialists are not broad left either, they would be faaaar left.
It’s astonishing that Mr Abbott didn’t take the approach of simply condemning the language of violence, pointing out that it has no place in Australia, and moving on. Instead he blames the Prime Minister.
A real sign of the class of the man.
Ah yes, the rhetoric is rising – violence is now inevitable from Bolt’s blog. The wingnuts need to dial it down a notch or ten.
Mr. Rabid is a faux gentleman.
I am quite sure he is considerate and solicitous to ladies – his own wife and daughters, for example – as long as they are submissive and petite and feminine, and accept his misogynist stereotyping of women.
Give him a genuinely strong and independant woman who not only challenges but defeats his authority (i.e. Julia Gillard) and the frothing chauvinist emerges like a bull at a gate.
Tony Abbott is entirely incapable of reason or fair play when engaging Julia Gillard. His style has always been punch first, ask questions later, and he now considers that any tactics are justified in removing this upstart woman who usurped his rightful throne.
Thus everything is Julia Gillard’s fault to Tony Abbott. His one and only tactic at the moment is “blame it on Julia”. Each and every. Single. Time.
J(ohn) Citizen is the same guy who was letterbox-dropping unauthorised anti-Greens paraphernalia in Sydney’s inner-west a couple of years ago which I reported to the AEC, who said they would like to kick it up to the AFP except that there’s barely any clues about who this guy is.
Still kicking, I see.
“It’s astonishing that Mr Abbott didn’t take the approach of simply condemning the language of violence,…”
I am afraid I am not surprised in the slightest by Abbott’s reaction. He has clearly demonstrated over the years he is no statesman of any kind, and never will be.
Time for the adults among the conservatives to step up and take charge, and seriously calm things down on that side of politics. Otherwise we are all in deep shit.
SHV @21 why is that website (Australian Patriots) registered in England, why is the Admin there etc etc?
The Liberal taliban site is open again for comments.
Mr Abbott would’ve made a wonderful, caring priest should he have seen the training through to the end, don’t you think?
Most likely because they have close ties to other racist/bigots. They’re especially fond of the EDL (Brievik’s mates) and some other US bigots whose name I forget.
Great admirers of the ‘galileo’ crowd and they seem to have some ties to the Liberals but I haven’t had time to get to the bottom of that. Big Liberals fan Malcolm Roberts addressed one of their rallies. They are a bit ‘tea party’, so orchestration/ties with Murdoch/Fox/Kochs etc.. is much more than a simple possibility.
I sussed it out, its a privacy thing. The domain is registered to a company to protect people like me from doing the most basic of snooping and finding out who registered it.
However …
Well… yeah, who’s surprised? Given the violent right-wing rhetoric that’s been leaking across from the US lately…
Some bogans set up a Facebook page called “Australia, where the solution to any problem is to ban it or tax it”, where some dropkick named Grant Howl put forward as a cunning bit of political protest the gang rape of Julia Gillard and Julie Bishop.
The post is now gone, but I do have the screenshots…
I’m sure we all realise that if a strident right-wing ideologue went on a killing spree it would simply be the act of a lone madman with absolutely no connection to the violent rhetoric of the Australian right.
You’re being a bit hard on the moderator.
Imagine moderating the page. Can’t read the posts for wit, can’t read them for humour, can’t read them for intelligence, can’t read them for insight.
Best just to nod off and have a good nap, and so of course a few nuts will creep into the muesli …
They hate us for our freedoms…..
weren’t the Rodent’s sedition laws supposed to prevent these sort of posts, or the sort of threats the Parrot made last week?
Jeremy, I was really shocked too see that comments like that could be left unreported on the website of a mainstream political party!
It really says something about the state of their rank-and-file members when so many are happy to let something like that fester on their messageboards. It certainly fits the pattern of conservative leaders of tacitly, if not explicitly, endorsing extremism in the general public. Somebody should be made accountable for it.
Of course, they’ve washed the site of any untoward comments!!
Happily, The Cache Never Lies!!
Cheers
Nice work Max.
Notice how media-watch tonight was largely sourced from PP and Deltoid, without any credit of course!
We slave away for change without reward or recognition.
There’s an update above with the other comment they suddenly deleted, after leaving it there for a month.
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